Yale Educational Travel

Boris Berman

Professor of PianoYale School of Music

Professor in the Practice of Piano, well known to the audiences of more than forty countries on six continents, Professor Berman regularly appears with leading orchestras, on major recital series, and in important festivals. He studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished pianist Lev Oborin.

An active recording artist and a Grammy nominee, Mr. Berman was the first pianist to record the complete solo works of Prokofiev (Chandos). Other acclaimed releases include all piano sonatas by Alexander Scriabin (Music and Arts) and a recital of Shostakovich piano works (Ottavo), which received the Edison Classic Award in Holland, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy. The recording of three Prokofiev concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi conducting (Chandos), was named the Compact Disc of the Month by CD Review. Other recordings include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Franck, Weber, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Berio, Joplin, and Cage.

In 1984 Mr. Berman joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music, where he chairs the Piano department and serves as music director of the Horowitz Piano Series. He was the founding director of the Yale Summer Piano Institute and of the International Summer Piano Institute in Hong Kong. He also gives master classes throughout the world, and in 2005 he was given the title of honorary professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, of the Danish Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen, and of the China Conservatory in Beijing.Yale University Press published two books of Prof. Berman, Notes from the Pianist's Bench and Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas; they both have been translated in several languages.